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There are several systems for transliteration of the
Manchu alphabet The Manchu alphabet ( mnc, m=, v=manju hergen, a=manju hergen) is the alphabet used to write the now nearly-extinct Manchu language. A similar script is used today by the Sibe people, Xibe people, who speak a Xibe language, language consider ...
which is used for writing the Manchu and Xibe languages. These include transliterations in
Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern I ...
and in
Cyrillic script The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking co ...
.


Transliteration in Latin script (

romanization Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, a ...
)

The romanization used in most recent western publications on Manchu is the one employed by the American sinologist Jerry Norman in his ''Comprehensive Manchu-English Dictionary'' (2013), a central reference tool in modern Manchu studies. This system, which has become the de facto modern standard in English-language publications, is the most recent incarnation of a system originally designed by the German linguist Hans Conon von der Gabelentz for his 1864 edition of the Manchu translation of the Four Books and other Chinese classics. As he explains:
"Because Manchu possesses an alphabetic script, it was acceptable, as being without any disadvantage whatsoever, to replace the indigenous Manchu script, the use of which would have made printing much more difficult and expensive, by our alphabet. I started out from the principle of substituting a single symbol for each Manchu letter, while avoiding the addition of diacritical marks as much as possible."
With his new system, Gabelentz did away with cumbersome transliterations such as ''dch, tch, kh'', replacing them with ''j, c, h''. The result has been described as a "simple and convenient system". Gabelentz also used this transliteration in his Manchu-German dictionary (1864), and the system was adopted unchanged by other German manchurists such as Erich Hauer for his dictionary (1952–55), and Erich Haenisch for his grammar (1961). In the 19th century the system was adopted, with minor changes, by the French linguist
Lucien Adam Lucien Adam (1833–1918) was a French linguist. Life Lucien Adam was born in Nancy, France. He became known for his writings on eastern Ural–Altaic dialects, and for writings on the Cree and Ojibwe dialects of the Algonquin language fam ...
in his grammar (1873), by the Belgian linguist Charles de Harlez in his handbook (1884), and by the German diplomat and linguist
Paul Georg von Möllendorff Paul Georg von Möllendorff (17 February 1847 in Zehdenick, Prussia – 20 April 1901 in Ningbo, China) was a German linguist and diplomat. Möllendorff is mostly known for his service as an adviser to the Korean king Gojong in the late nineteen ...
. In English-language publications, the latter is often incorrectly credited with being the inventor of the system, probably because his ''Manchu Grammar'' (1892) was the first book in English to use it. Thus Norman himself refers to "the Möllendorff system of romanization". Authors writing in French and German generally recognize Gabelentz as its creator. The system as used by Gabelentz (1864), Möllendorff (1892) and Norman (2013) is set out below, with the older system used by Gabelentz in his grammar (1832) added for comparison. Also in the table are the
Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...
-based system designed by Hu (1994) which is the standard in Chinese-language publications, and the input system of BabelPad. The table follows the traditional order of the Manchu alphabet.When used to write Xibe, some letters of the Manchu alphabet are written differently (Roth Li 2010: 298). These different letters are not shown in the table. The standard transliteration system follows the following conventions: *The velar and uvular consonants are not differentiated: and are both transliterated as k, and are both g, and and are both h. In Manchu orthography, the use of either the velars or the uvulars is largely predictable: velars before e, i, u and uvulars before a, o, ū. The standard transliteration leaves some ambiguity, as the spelling is not entirely predictable in syllable-final position. For example teksin "straight" can be written as or as . *The spelling is transliterated as ng, for example inenggi "day", cangkai "only, just", gung "duke". *The spelling is transliterated as i, for example baita "thing", meihe "snake", duin "four". In the standard transliteration, the spellings sh and th each represent two separate consonants, as in eshen "uncle", butha "hunting, fishing". In Hu’s transliteration, separate ''s'' and ''h'' are written as ''s’h'' (''es’hen'') to avoid confusion with ''sh'' (Norman š). Gabelentz (1864) used the transcriptions ''sḥ'' and ''tḥ'', with a dot under the ''h'' (''esḥen, butḥa'').


Transliteration in Cyrillic script ( cyrillization)

The following transliteration (paired in the table below with the Norman system) was designed by the Russian diplomat and linguist Ivan Zakharov and used in his important Manchu dictionary (1875) and grammar (1879). He applies the following rules: *The velar and uvular consonants are not differentiated: and are both transliterated as к, and are both г, and and are both х. *The velars are marked with a macron (к̄, г̄, х̄) when followed by а (''a''), о (''o'') and у (''u''); к̄ is also used for the velar when it occurs in syllable-final position. *The spelling is transliterated as н before velars and uvulars, for example инэнги "day", чанкай "only, just"; before other consonants, and in word-final position, is transliterated as нъ, for example синънамби "to listen", гунъ "duke". *The back vowel is transliterated у after the uvulars, and ӯ after other consonants (see Table below). *Syllable-final consonants are written with the hard sign (бъ, мъ, etc.), with the exception of нь (''n'') which is written with the
soft sign The soft sign (Ь, ь, italics ) also known as the front yer, front jer, or er malak (lit. "small er") is a letter of the Cyrillic script. In Old Church Slavonic, it represented a short (or "reduced") front vowel. As with its companion, the b ...
because нъ stands for . *The spelling is transliterated as й, for example байта "thing", мэйхэ "snake", дуйнь "four". *The is not transliterated in the spellings , , , and . *Combinations of plus vowel are transliterated with the Cyrillic iotified vowel letters я (''ya''), ѣ (''ye''), іō (''yo''), ю (''yu''), and ю̄ (''yū'').


Notes and references


Cited works

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *{{cite book , author=Захаров, Иван Ильич , year=1879 , script-title=ru:Грамматика Маньчжурскаго Языка , trans-title=Grammar of the Manchu Language , location=Санктпетербургъ , publisher=Типографія Императорской Академіи Наукъ , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9Sg_AQAAMAAJ Manchu language Transliteration